US stocks closed sharply lower on Monday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing below a key technical indicator for the first time since April, as investors prepared for quarterly results from retailers and chip giant Nvidia and also awaited a long-delayed US jobs report this week.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 0.90% to finish at 6,672.67 points, the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.82% to 22,710.70 points and the Dow Jones fell 1.18% to 46,592.91 points.
Losses accelerated during the afternoon session as all three major indices traded below their 50-day moving averages. This moving average, closely followed by analysts, is considered an indicator of the medium-term trend.
This week’s results from major retailers Walmart (WMT.N), Home Depot (HD.N), and Target (TGT.N).
Read: Alphabet shares hit record after Berkshire’s unusual $4.9 billion bet
This will bring an end to the quarterly earnings season. Home Depot shares, which were due to report results Tuesday before the market opened, closed lower.
Investors were eagerly awaiting the September jobs report, which is due out on Thursday following the lengthy US government shutdown last week.
Investors are expecting two important things: “consumer analysis… and Nvidia earnings,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York, noting that “we have a consumer that is potentially weakening, not strengthening.”
Furthermore, he said: “We have a market that is consolidating a very important recovery from the April minimum.”
Nvidia, the largest company in the world by market capitalization, a key player in the artificial intelligence sector on Wall Street, will present its results after the close of the session on Wednesday. Its shares fell on Monday and were among those that weighed the most on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.
Stocks have come under pressure this month on concerns that excessive enthusiasm for AI has pushed valuations to excessive levels.
Among the companies that posted gains during the day was Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which hit an all-time high after Berkshire Hathaway revealed a $4.3 billion stake in the company.
Berkshire also further reduced its stake in Apple, whose shares closed lower on Monday.
With information from Reuters
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